One
by Arkham Inmate A143
Summary: She saw the sun for the first time when she was sixteen, and basked in the sunshine on her skin. He saw her for the first time when he was seventeen, and he just knew that she would be his sunshine.


**Uno**

Chapter One

She was sixteen when she saw the sun for the first time. She thinks she was. Age was a fuzzy topic, but sixteen was the general consensus. Before that it was a basement laboratory and a world with no sun, and she really didn't like talking about it. No one knows how she made it back from the world with no sun. The only help she could provide was that she had been sleeping in her makeshift home, a science classroom in the school, and woke up in a world with a bright colors, over powering smells, in a world where she wasn't alone anymore.

The boys she had woken up to, in the mixture of mourning the loss of a new friend, the confusion over her, and the excitement over an old friend returned to them, tried to convince a boy named Steve to take her in for a while, at least until his parents returned.

He was a few years older than the boys, had fluffy hair and carried a bat embedded with nails when she met him.

"What's her name?" Steve sighed, using the bat to gesture to the girl.

The Party blanked at that, and after shared looks and a silent argument, Mike finally answered, "Karen?"

"Dude, that's your mom's name," Lucas sighed, slapping a hand to his forehead.

"You don't know? Great, you want me to take a girl from the same place as those monsters to my house and you don't even know her name." Steve nodded, "That's fantastic, really. What's your name?"

He was asking her directly; she was glad, she preferred speaking for herself. "They never told me, wasn't important to them."

"Okay, '_they_' had to call you something, right? What was it?"

"One."

"Wait," Dustin said, "One like Eleven?"

"Minus ten," One answered.

"Do you have powers?" Dustin asked.

"Show us the tattoo," Mike demanded, "prove you're telling the truth."

"Enough, you can interrogate her later, alright?" Steve asked. "My parents are going to be back on the 18th, got it? Figure out where she's going by then."

The party had agreed, but she never left Steve's. Over the course of five days the boys hadn't managed to come up with a place for One to live, not that they had devoted a lot of time too finding one. They were preoccupied with Will's return and the disappearance of Eleven.

Mike's sister Nancy proved to be of more help. Steve had called her after he had tried to help One clean up and discovered that she didn't the even the basics of hygiene. She showed up at Steve's place less than an hour later with everything she had raided from her family's extras closet and donation box. It took a bath and two showers before Nancy had One clean and named: Luna. It was the only suggestion Nancy gave that One liked.

Nancy pretended to not see Luna's scars, and she didn't mention them to Steve or Mike. If they were consequential, One would tell them.

She was also the one to suggest that Luna stay with Steve indefinitely, that they claim Luna was a foreign exchange student the Harrington's had signed up to host and had ultimately forgot about. It worked, miraculously, and Mrs. Harrington ("Debra, honey, please,") finally had the daughter she had always wanted and Mr. Harrington had never given her.

Debra and Mr. Harrington were gone a lot, they didn't notice how long Luna was staying. Soon enough one school semester passed, and the summer was gone. Nancy helped Luna catch up to the junior year curriculum, surprised and jealous with the knowledge that she already possessed.

"I learned how to read and write in the lab," She explained, "The Upside Down had a lot of books, what the boards showed different things everyday. Wasn't much to do down there besides fighting and studying."

Come the new school year Luna was registered and the newest student at Hawkin's High School. Each day she walked the halls, loitered near those she was meant to be friends with, spent time with a bunch of children, and was bored out of her mind. There may have been little to do in the Upside Down, but she was never bored. To be bored was to be dead.

On Thursday October 25 there was a change in Hawkins. One could feel it, and she was ready for it.

On Tuesday October 30, One found out what.

Billy Hargrove and his blue Camaro were the talk of the school. Luna was thoroughly disappointed, a new boy in her junior English and her junior anatomy classes was not the kind of change she was looking for.

Tina's party held promise though, if only for Halloween night. Luna's stomach felt weird, butterflies was all she could think to equate it too; her first Halloween and her first social engagement all in one night. That's if she could convince Steve to bring her.

"I want to go," One shoved the flyer from Tina in Steve's face as she climbed on the picnic table in the courtyard and sat with her legs out in front of her and her ankles crossed. It was neon pink and gaudy, the color painful to Luna's eyes. "Can I go?"

"There's going to be a lot of people there, and drinking," Steve took the flyer and handed it to Nancy.

"I gathered," One nodded, "Parties are in books. Can I go?"

"You don't have a costume."

"So take me to get one."

"I don't have time today, basketball practice."

"If you don't want me to go, tell me," Luna ordered. "I get it, you don't want to babysit the freaky lab experiment at a party. You want to drink, and have fun with your girlfriend, not be forced to stay sober. It's fine, just tell me."

"How?" Steve asked, falling forward and resting his forehead on her knee. "How do you know how to guilt trip so well?"

"I'm an empath," Luna ruffled his hair. Steve jerked back and swatted her hand away, fixing his signature feature. "Does that mean I can go?"

"I don't think I could stop you anyways," Steve admitted, not bothering to hide the defeat in his tone. "I'll take you to get a costume after practice, okay?"

"Thank you!" Luna launched herself at Steve, wrapping her arms around his neck in a to tight hug and pushing him into a laughing Nancy. The commotion had drawn the attention of the those occupying the courtyard, most only looking a moment before turning back to their own friends to gossip, but one thought it funny to whistle.

One released Steve from the hug, and turned to look for the culprit. It was Tommy H and the rest of his group, and new boy Billy. Most were laughing, some making faces and gestures that One didn't understand, and Billy pretended to not be watching as he lit a cigarette, but One's eyes locked on Tommy in a glare that cause goosebumps to cover his skin and the can of Coke in his hand. She tilted her head, twitched her right ring finger, and Tommy's face was covered in his exploded can of soda.

"So, after practice then? We go costume shopping?" Nancy asked.

"You say that like I have a choice," Steve sighed, "Wait, what about dinner with the Hollands?"

"You'll have time," Luna assured.

"Definitely," Nancy agreed, "We'll have time. What are you thinking for a costume?"

"I'm leaning towards either Janet Weiss or Alex Delarge."

Nancy was aghast, "What kind of movies are you showing her?"

"I don't even know who those people are!" Steve defended, "Jonathan's the one into all the freaky shit."

"He is in so much trouble," Nancy stormed off from the table. Luna followed her lead and stood, standing on her the tips of her toes and stretching towards the sky.

"Who are they?"

"A psychopathic rapist and a repressed nymphomanic," Luna answered, backing away from the table and turning into someone's chest as tried to leave. She looked up, her eyes meeting his.

Billy. What is it about Billy? She furrowed her brow and wet her lips with her tongue. There was something there, something in him that she could feel, something that she shared.

She broke the stare and took off towards her locker, class was starting soon.


End file.
